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A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

jacobfilipp.com

1–10 of 90 posts

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#2
I think there is a strong argument for the Library of Congress or some other public/quasi-public entity to archive Google Maps/StreetView data. Redevelopment has been an ongoing fact of life for much of the time I've lived in my area, and huge swathes of the landscape are nigh unrecognizable from when I was a kid. However, a lot of the way things were is preserved in that map and image data. I think this is valuable for any number of applications, let alone the basic act of grounding oneself within the fact of the change that one's environment has undergone over time. Unfortunately, for however grateful I am that Google has made all of this available to us, I don't trust them to preserve it all long-term. I don't think it would be a good idea to let it all slip through our fingers without a plan.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#5
post #3

Why almost every store have their names written in Chinese (?) and English. Is the post a joke with photos from Asia malls (or AI generated)? Or it’s just common in that part of Canada?

Not sure about Toronto, but there are a lot of places like that on the BC side. I don't know if it's true or not, but I heard once that leading up to the handoff of Hong Kong from Britain to China there was a lot of immigration to Canada, due to their easier process than that of the US. It could also just be an Asian neighborhood like you'll find in pretty much every major city.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#6
I have a similar feeling when I bring friends to places I spent lots of time, but which have now been completely transformed by redevelopment. I can walk through and visualize my old surroundings as if they were still there, but I just can't convey them to others who are visiting to the first time. The best I can do is show old google maps photos.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#7
Interesting malls that disappeared before the Web left less digital trace:

https://tanasbournemall.blogspot.com/2011/12/tanasbourne-mal...

As a kid, riding on the freeway to grandma's, I'd always wonder what that weird building with the futuristic windows in the distance was. Later, as a teen, working out near there, I learned it was a mall, but already mostly closed down, except for the Chang's Mongolian Grill.

Thankfully, someone went to the trouble to retroactively put some information about it on the Web.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#8
post #3

Why almost every store have their names written in Chinese (?) and English. Is the post a joke with photos from Asia malls (or AI generated)? Or it’s just common in that part of Canada?

I see that everywhere in USA also.

You see names written in Chinese and English everywhere in the USA? Or did you mean something else? Because if that's what you meant to say, that is absolutely not how things are "everywhere in the USA".

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#9
post #3

Why almost every store have their names written in Chinese (?) and English. Is the post a joke with photos from Asia malls (or AI generated)? Or it’s just common in that part of Canada?

Yes, almost all US cities have at least a couple grocery stores that stock imported products and have signage in multiple languages. most common is Chinese or general “Asian” but larger cities have more specific stores that specialize further on Korean, Vietnamese, etc.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see that everywhere in USA also.

You see names written in Chinese and English everywhere in the USA? Or did you mean something else? Because if that's what you meant to say, that is absolutely not how things are "everywhere in the USA".

I live in Texas, and have lived in California and New York. In all three of these places the areas with a large Chinese presence will have stores with names in both Chinese and English.

This is absolutely common in the US in pretty much any large city, I can't imagine someone having never seen this before in the US unless they never lived or went to an area that was diverse. And its not just Chinese, many places will have Korean names, Japanese names, and of course on the other end Spanish names accompanied by english but most are more used to this.

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